William Floyd (1734–1821), who lived on a large slave plantation on the south shore of eastern Long Island, was the first of four men who signed the Declaration of Independence from New York.
Born in Brookhaven, Long Island, he inherited the expansive William Floyd Estate (an Old Mastic House and thousands of acres) in 1755 at age 21 after his father died.
He managed the large property using a combination of enslaved labor, indentured servants, and free workers.
He had a long life and career in New York politics and moved upstate where he spent his final years in Westernville in Oneida County. His estate there is located at the intersection of Main Street and Gifford Hill Road.
Built in 1803, he designed the two-story Georgian-style home to be a near-replica of his downstate family plantation in Old Mastic.
The home remained in the hands of Floyd’s descendants until the 1950s but has since passed into private hands and is not open for the public. Floyd is buried however at the nearby Westernville Cemetery
His original Long Island home, initially opened to the public during the 1976 Bicentennial, is managed by the National Park Service.
MaryLaura Lamont, a retired ranger from the Floyd Estate in Mastic will explain how he risked his life, family, and farm in a hybrid program “He Dared to Sign: William Floyd of Mastick,” on Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 2 pm ET.
The program is jointly sponsored by the Nassau County Historical Society and the Jericho Public Library. Register for the Zoom program on the Jericho Library’s website.
Illustrations, from above: Detail of portrait of William Floyd by Robert Earle, 1792, in front of his estate in Old Mastic, New York on Long Island; and a photo of Floyd’s Old Mastic House courtesy the William Floyd Estate, National Park Service.
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